STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 While the Island Auto Group conducts a number of charitable collections during the holiday season, Santa came early this time around when the dealership hosted a collection from within.<\/p>\n
As a result of the \u201cdrive,\u201d a total of $10,000 will be distributed to the Staten Island Giving Circle\u2019s Food Scarcity Initiatives.<\/p>\n
In addition, Toyota followed by matching that number bringing the donation up to $20,000.<\/p>\n
Marcello Sciarrino, co-owner of Island Auto Group \u2014 and his wife Charlotte Sciarrino \u2014 followed by contributing $2,500 making a total of $22,500, part of which will be directed to the Veteran\u2019s Pantry Initiative to be utilized by 175 veterans on a monthly basis.<\/p>\n
Island Auto stepped to the plate and donated funds which will be directed to the Food Insecurity Programs, including the Veteran\u2019s Food Panty, the Weekend Food Backpack Program \u2014 which assists children and Pop-Up Food Pantries in three schools on Staten Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so proud of the initiative because our employees came together and stepped up to give to the community,\u201d said Marcello Sciarrino. \u201cWe are so happy to be a part of this partnership together with Toyota as a way to give back and help our veterans who have done so much for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
More on the Staten Island Giving Circle<\/p>\n
The Staten Island Giving Circle founded in 2008 by Evelyn Kormanik who\u2019s a 2012 Advance Woman of Achievement, is an all-volunteer organization which assists and supports children, seniors and military veterans living on Staten Island.<\/p>\n
According to Michele Yacovello, president of the organization, \u201cWe create opportunities for Staten Islanders to make a difference in the lives of the people in their own community. And that\u2019s the beauty of our relationship with Island Auto.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yacovello went on to explain that the largest endeavor is the Veteran\u2019s Food Pantry, in addition to a weekend Food Backpack Program where every Friday 150 families who are food insecure, receive groceries for days when schools aren\u2019t in session.<\/p>\n
Kathy Barzal, who leads the Veteran\u2019s Initiative at the Staten Island Giving Circle, noted that the Veteran\u2019s Food Pantry began in March of 2024 with 12 veterans with a goal to honor and support our veterans by ensuring that none who have served go hungry. <\/p>\n
The organization provides nourishment and essentials for veterans and surviving spouses. A sense of belonging is fostered through community engagement and socialization opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have 174 we serve monthly. Out of that 174 we have 44 deliveries to at home veterans who can\u2019t make it to us whether it\u2019s health or transportation challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that each month they have more veterans joining the pantry. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have over 30 volunteers who help run the pantry between pantry volunteers who stock, sort, make phone calls to the veterans, and delivery people. It does take a village. I\u2019m happy to be a Staten Island Giving Circle member and also the coordinator of the pantry and our veteran\u2019s socialization activities as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 While the Island Auto Group conducts a number of charitable collections during the holiday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-88879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}